DescentBB

CHINA WARNING

China told its citizens on Thursday they were not safe in the Philippines and its state media warned of war, as a month-long row over rival claims in the South China Sea threatened to spill out of control.

Chinese travel agencies announced they had suspended tours to the Philippines, under government orders, and the embassy in Manila advised its nationals already in the country to stay indoors ahead of planned protests.

“Avoid going out at all if possible, and if not, to avoid going out alone. If you come across any demonstrations, leave the area, do not stay to watch,” the embassy’s advisory said.

U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay was a major ship-repair, supply, and rest and recreation facility of the United States Navy located in Olongapo, Zambales, Philippines. It was the largest U.S. Navy installation in the Pacific[citation needed] and was the largest overseas military installation of the United States Armed Forces after Clark Air Base in Angeles City was closed in 1991. Following its closure in 1992, it was transformed into the Subic Bay Freeport Zone by the Philippine government.

No matter how willing we are to discuss the issue, the current Philippine leadership is intent on pressing us into a corner where there is no other option left but the use of arms,” the China Daily said in an editorial.

The risk of conflict in the South China Sea is significant. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines have competing territorial and jurisdictional claims, particularly over rights to exploit the region's possibly extensive reserves of oil and gas. Freedom of navigation in the region is also a contentious issue, especially between the United States and China over the right of U.S. military vessels to operate in China's two-hundred-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). These tensions are shaping—and being shaped by—rising apprehensions about the growth of China's military power and its regional intentions. China has embarked on a substantial modernization of its maritime paramilitary forces as well as naval capabilities to enforce its sovereignty and jurisdiction claims by force if necessary. At the same time, it is developing capabilities that would put U.S. forces in the region at risk in a conflict, thus potentially denying access to the U.S. Navy in the western Pacific.

Given the growing importance of the U.S.-China relationship, and the Asia-Pacific region more generally, to the global economy, the United States has a major interest in preventing any one of the various disputes in the South China Sea from escalating militarily.

flip wrote:Taiwan has all but integrated into China. They are well within that 200 mile zone that is being contested.

Top Gun wrote:Or maybe he just realizes that getting involved in a silly squabble over a little lump of rock wouldn't achieve anything.

There are now 33 Chinese Gov't vessels in Scarborough (Panatag) shoal; (FLEC 310) most powerful Chinese maritime ship, and surveillance ships (CMS) 75 and 81, 7 PRC Gov"t fishing vessels, and 23 Chinese utility boats, blocking/scaring Filipino fishing boats from entering the lagoon. Opposing them are Philippines's BRP Edsa II and a search and rescue vessel belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, staying back, watching.., because it's powerless. How in tarnation, you ask, can a country, with the most extensive coastline in the world, have such a pathetic naval/coastguard inventory? It's generation after generation of crooked/corrupt political leadership.., swindling its people, time after time unabated. The lot of the downtrodden is worse than previous GMA administration.

On Monday, He Jia, an anchor on China’s state-run CCTV, mistakenly declared that “China has unquestionable sovereignty over the Philippines” rather than just over the disputed island. On Tuesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying warned a Philippine diplomat that China was fully prepared to do anything to respond to escalation. Deep-water drilling has begun near islands in the South China Sea and Chinese travel agencies have reportedly suspended tours to the Philippines

Finally, CFR notes that the dispute has also included Chinese hacking attacks on Philippines government websites, as well as Filipino retaliatory hacking. This too is a front that could escalate since the Chinese government has shown no signs of trying to tamp down its own very nationalistic citizenry on this issue. Things are not yet really bad, but, ominously, they are not getting better either. The U.S. should be thinking again about its obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty. It is no longer a purely theoretical obligation.

Meanwhile, a squadron of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships en route from the Gulf of Aden, including the Udaloy-class anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, entered the main port of Manila on Tuesday on a business visit. It is the first time Russian naval forces have paid a visit to the Philippines in 96 years.

PHL won't recognize China fishing ban in West Philippine Sea

(Updated 4:10 p.m.) The Philippines on Monday said it will not recognize China’s fishing ban over the West Philippine Sea (also called South China Sea).

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario rejected Beijing’s directive to suspend fishing activities for two and a half months beginning Wednesday in its claimed areas in the West Philippine Sea, saying this is an “encroachment” of Philippine territory.

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A report by XInhua News Agency published in The Philippine Star on Monday said the ban would be enforced from May 16 to August 1 and would include the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off northwestern Philippines, where Manila and Beijing are locked in a six-week naval standoff since early April.

The same report said China's move "is a reiteration of the summer fishing ban declared by China every year since 1999 in the waters it claims as part of its territory."

The announcement was made by Beijing’s South China Fisheries Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, the report said. Violators would face fines up to 50,000 yuan or close to $8,000 while their catches and boats will be confiscated, it added.

“The Philippines does not recognize the fishing ban since this is an encroachment of its exclusive economic zone,” Del Rosario said. “The Philippines will exercise its legitimate and exclusive rights within its EEZ in accordance with UNCLOS.”

UNCLOS stands for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which extends the territorial jurisdiction of maritime states up to 200 nautical miles from its coasts. It is signed by at least 162 nations, including the Philippines and China.